Rinspeed, the Swiss company known for pushing the limits of vehicle modifications, is set to debut a new concept at the Geneva Motor Show next month. This time, the victim/vehicle to undergo the Rinspeed knife is none other than a Tesla Model S. But rather than just adding aero-bits and altering the wheels, the company has transformed the luxury electric saloon into a completely new autonomous concept called the XchangE.

Over the years Rinspeed has gained a reputation for its eccentric and envelope-pushing ideas. The latest entry is no exception. The Rinspeed XchangE Concept, engineered by 4erC and built at Esoro, is the Swiss firm’s future vision of how autonomous should be, versus how the technology is currently perceived.

On the exterior, the car is still clearly a Model S, but with obvious aesthetic modifications. A flying rear spoiler on the trunk lid is one subtle difference from the stock model, but aerodynamic tweaks in the form of redesigned front and rear bumpers, a more aggressive grille, plus the addition of body skirts and gold accent pieces definitively give the XchangE concept away as unconventional. Oversized 20-inch Borbet wheels help finish out the visual update.

But where the autonomous fun really happens is in the Rinspeed lounge.The concept’s Tesla interior, which has been completely reworked, is more indicative of a yacht cabin than automotive space. According to Rinspeed, the mandate behind this new redesign was to focus on the mental well-being of passengers and treat them to a space where relaxation and entertainment were the priority.

The interior was developed by Strähle+Hess and, with its maritime blue/gray color selections, is designed to emote a relaxing, lounge-like atmosphere. To make the interior as tactile as possible, the designers chose to work with more natural materials like Merino wool and silk processed at the Schoeller spinning mill in Austria. According to Rinspeed, materials were individually selected to best compliment the car’s various relaxation zones.

The Model S’ seats have been removed to make way for highly adjustable captain’s chairs, that swivel, slide and tilt in order to provide passengers with a fully customizable seating arrangement. The XchangE’s seats take their inspiration directly from business-class airline seats, and come courtesy of Otto Bock Mobility Solutions, a medical prosthetics manufacturer.

The leg rests are designed so passengers can swivel 180 degrees to chat with rear occupants, relax or watch on-demand UHD movies on the 32-inch 4K monitor hidden in the rear seat ... all while the car is in autonomous mode of course. According to Rinspeed, the 20-plus possible seating arrangements are not only good for a world record, but also allow passengers and driver to relax in any number of personal permutations.

Rinspeed also saw the need to make the steering wheel less of an invasive device and more of an integral part of the autonomous plan. Thanks to a movable TRW steering wheel and lightweight column with bionic design courtesy of Georg Fischer Automotive, the driver can now slide the entire unit over and park it in the center position when not in use.

A multi-redundant "steer-by-wire" system from Swabian Company Paravan means that the driver can now fully stretch out and literally let the car do the driving. TRW’s concept wheel also comes equipped with hands-on recognition, transparent multifunction keys and a drive-mode-manager display integrated into the steering wheel’s leading edge.

Rinspeed had Swiss watchmaker Carl F. Bucherer place a Patravi TravelTec timepiece in a transparent globe above the column. The globe, equipped with an electric motor, spins when the car is stationary in order to keep the rather pricey watch properly wound.

Behind the steering column is an infotainment system courtesy of Harman, which runs the length of the dash. This 1.2 m (3.9 ft) strip, based on a next-generation scalable platform and running HTML 5, provides occupants with navigation, road side assistance information and entertainment. Beneath the glowing info-strip, on either side of the steering column, are pivoting LCD displays that allow both driver and passenger to check the web, catch up on emails or link with the office via LTE and cloud-based services.

According to Rinspeed, all critical information and data coming into the autonomous vehicle is handled via Deutche Telekom’s Business-to-Car platform. Travel-specific Cloud services including traffic updates, road closures, route recommendations, and weather conditions are all provided to the driver in real time via an integrated LTE module.

Rinspeed’s XchangE concept is unlikely to make it to production, but the company does expect certain technological aspects of the car to eventually make it to the real world. Gizmag will be on hand to cover the car’s official debut at the Geneva Motor Show, which starts on March 4.

Born on the cold, barren Canadian plains of Calgary, Alberta, Angus MacKenzie couldn’t decide between marketing, automotives or an entrepreneurial path - so he chose all three. When not writing, Angus has for the past six years been Editor-in-Chief for elemente, an internationally recognized architecture/design magazine. All articles by Angus MacKenzie

Trains are somewhat an exception because half the seats face that way and people are forced to get used to it.

However,

even on a half-filled train the majority of the passengers take up the forward facing seats first.

Griffin 19th February, 2014 @ 10:18 am PST

I would love the chance to be a 'back seat' passenger in one of these - just to watch the spun-round driver's face as I look forward over his shoulder, put on a terrorised WTF! expression and start grabbing at the seat belt!

It would be well worth it!

The Skud 19th February, 2014 @ 06:00 pm PST

I have no doubt that the concept will come about eventually, but it is not something that I could travel in, my brain could just not take the driver not having control, and how long would it take for him to turn his seat to face the front if there was a problem, quite a while I would think?

JSSFB 19th February, 2014 @ 10:42 pm PST

When are the majority of people going to understand that it would be wise to put a stop to modern society's accelerating restrictions and prohibitions in all areas of life?

Modern society increasingly becomes a straitjacket, because people think that "this is going to come," without pausing for a moment to reflect that they do have a choice. Now, some urban experts in their isolated milieux have decided that we must not be allowed to drive our own cars. But who are these who want us to stop driving our cars, and what makes them entitled to decide for us that relaxation, entertainment and passivity should be the norm? Who are they to determine that it is boring to drive a car with the use of all our senses involved all the time?

As a matter of fact, to use our senses, our feet and hands to drive a car is both an immensely rewarding experience and stimulating because the driver must be alert all the time. Self-driving cars are by the way not "autonomous," they are totally dependent on central control and navigation systems that in such a scenario would deprive the users the ability to drive. From there, a total prohibition against manual driving would follow. To believe otherwise, is ostrich thinking.

Who have decided for us that we should not be allowed to drive our own cars, who have decided that we must be prevented from being active participants in the traffic and control our vehicles by means of our senses and motor abilities?

Have we lost the ability to make our own choices? Are we so blindly obedient that ever more pervasive control measures and restrictions are accepted because we mindlessly believe in those who know better than ourselves how we are to live our lives?

Per Inge Oestmoen 20th February, 2014 @ 01:10 am PST

JSSFB I believe that the swivel sweet for the driver is only for whenever the car is stationary. It would be quite dangerous to turn it around while attempting to drive lol. The passenger could turn around during the ride but i think it's mostly for stationary activity at most.

Greg Keiser 20th February, 2014 @ 05:53 am PST

It would have made things much more romantic in my youth if I could have just pressed a button, or whatever, instead of having to disengage, sometimes literally, in order to climb into the back seat just when things were getting interesting.